


When The Dragon’s Away

by mrjengablock



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Actual Demon Oni Lee, Fantasy AU, Gen, Human Metalworker Bakuda, feudal era japan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 05:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20688584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrjengablock/pseuds/mrjengablock
Summary: Snip 01 — Fantasy AU — theme: manic — Oni Lee, Bakuda





	When The Dragon’s Away

When a week had passed without the return of the river god, Lee didn’t fret. 

The dragon was young and vigorous. What he lacked in experience he made up in raw power. The dancing firelight that was the reflection of power off his shining metal scales could be seen for miles, after all, when it appeared above the lake where they made their home. He was too strong to be bested by a mere mountain spirit.

After a month, Lee was beginning to feel a little prickle of worry. 

He couldn’t imagine the beast of fire and water that was his Lord Dragon being slain, but he also couldn't fathom why he was so delayed either. Born of fear and anguish as he was, Lee was often told that he lacked the sprig of hope needed to imagine things. He didn’t know if this was true or not but, as he often did when confronted with something he did not understand, he wandered off in search of the little Laborer.

She was easy enough to find—the explosions echoed through the cavernous halls of the river god’s palace. He followed them sedately, hands in his sleeves, trusting that he would not be injured by flame (no more than he already crackled and writhed with the dying screams of a man burned alive) and that the water of the lake would soothe any injury done to the palace. 

He found the Laborer buried in scraps of worked metal and raw materials. She was struggling to push heavier bits of machinery off her body. Upon spotting him, she shrieked, “Lee! Help me, I have work to do! My project is of the utmost importance!”

He regarded her serenely, taking in the soot that covered her face and the grime of her ragged  _ yukata _ . She wore heavy worker’s gloves and had a mane of metal ropes strung around her neck like a noose. He looked about the workshop to spot this important project, and found himself face to face with a metal mask twisted into fury, sharp teeth made of broken bone and heaps of golden scales. 

He blinked, thinking hard. Why was it so familiar a countenance?

Behind him, the Laborer spit curses upon him, his sires, and all heavy trees. She was somewhat silly, he had discovered; he had no sires save the flames of a funeral pyre set alight before the body was deceased. 

He turned back to her. She was halfway out of the mess of tangled metal ropes and wooden planks. Jagged fingernails dug into the coral floor as she inched forward.

“Help me!” She screamed again when she saw him looking.

Instead, he pointed to the simulacrum of a dragon behind him. “Is this a tribute for Lord Dragon?”

“Lord Dragon! Pah!” She spat, affecting a haughty look. It was somewhat diminished by her being on the floor. “Lord, is he? Fear me, I’m a dragon! You have to work for me now because I’m a dragon! No, I don’t care what your little toys can do, they just amuse me, because I’m a dragon! PAH!”

Why the Laborer felt the need to summarize her meeting with the Lord so often, Lee couldn’t guess. 

He finally reached down and levered the wreckage off her back with one hand while the other dragged her the rest of the way out.

She jumped to her feet, neither thanking him nor pausing in her speech.

“Amusing little toy, am I? Little human pet of a mighty dragon Lord, am I!?” Her voice reached a crescendo, howling like a hundred angry spirits. 

He nodded, because that  _ was _ what she was, but she paid him no mind, not even glancing back as she threw her arms wide in the direction of her beast of bone and metal.

“This! This is what my skills are for! This is the true destiny of the mighty BAKUDA!”

As far as he knew, her name was Kin, but she paid him no mind when he asked who Bakuda was.

“Behold, you ignorant, pus-filled sack of hubris and misery! This is your god! Enshrined in molten metal and cooled in the magic of the dragon god’s lake! It will breathe fire, move and twist and even fly! The peasants will never know that the god is missing, and they will bend to the will of she who holds the god’s reins!” 

Lee was having trouble parsing her words as she began to laugh. It was a series of sharp shrill barks, interspersed with deep chuckles. 

He examined the creation again and, yes, it did bear a bit of resemblance to the dragon lord. 

He asked, “Why must the peasants not know the Lord is gone?”

“Why? Why!?” She asked, whirling on him with the fury of a firestorm. “Peasants must be cowed and cajoled! They won’t bring us food or tribute if they think the dragon god is gone! We will starve here! Worse, I won’t be able to  _ work _ !”

Lee hadn’t thought of that. He nodded slowly. 

“And while the Lord is away, we can act in his place!”

Lee frowned. That didn’t sound like something the Lord would want. 

The Laborer went on, stalking up to him with such a fire in her eyes he thought she might burst into flame. He felt his own aura begin to smolder as the raw emotion radiating off her stirred the beast of pain and fear that was his base nature. His robe was beginning to smoke, his skin becoming blackened. 

She paid this transformation no mind. She took hold of his shoulders, surely feeling the burn of his smoking flesh. He broke a bit in her vice-like grip, ash and soot pouring over her hands as his skin and muscle devolved into bits of char that fell like snow upon the floor.

He paid it as little mind as she, caught as he was in the tide of the Laborer’s energy. 

“Think of it, you * _ oni _ *, you thrice-damned wandering monk, you burning spirit! We can rule in his place! We can conquer the whole valley, maybe even unseat the emperor himself!”

Lee was trying to think of it and trying to imagine what his lord would say about this foolhardy plan. He couldn’t. 

“Finally,  _ finally _ , my work will receive the glory it deserves! I will carry the banner of the dragon and storm heaven itself!”

Eventually, unable to imagine all that she spoke of, much less the desires of his Lord, Lee shrugged. His shoulders crumbled a little.

“Okay.”


End file.
